John Hope Bryant

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John Hope Bryant

Background information
Born February 6, 1966 (1966-02-06) (age 42)
Origin Los Angeles, California, USA

John Hope Bryant (born February 6, 1966) is an American financial literacy and poverty eradication activist, founder of Operation HOPE, author, and the first African-American in history to be knighted by German nobility and the royal House of Lippe.

Contents

[edit] Background

[edit] Early life

John Hope Bryant was born February 6, 1966 at Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles, California.

John was raised primarily in Compton, and in the South Central area of Los Angeles, by parents Juanita Smith and Johnnie Will Smith. Though neither of his parents finished high school, Bryant credits them with being two of the smartest people that he ever met.

[edit] Education

Bryant graduated from Santa Monica High School in 1984. Later in life, on May 8th, 2004 Mr. Bryant received an Honorary Doctorate Degree of Human Letters from Paul Quinn College in Dallas, Texas, for his work around education and poverty eradication.

[edit] Career

[edit] Operation HOPE

On May 5, 1992, John Hope Bryant founded Operation HOPE, Inc. immediately following the 1992 Rodney King riots in Los Angeles, California. Operation HOPE, Inc. (OHI) is a non-profit, public benefit, investment banking organization.

The organization is composed, in part, of a national network of inner-city banking centers called HOPE Centers, serving low-wealth communities by offering hope and converting check cashing customers to banking customers. These centers also provide financial literacy education. In 2004 Bryant and Operation Hope partnered with former President Bill Clinton and the Clinton Foundation to expand access to the Earned Income Tax Credit to victims of Hurricane Katrina, and to all low wealth Americans.

In 2005 Ambassador Andrew Young joined Bryant and Operation Hope, taking on the role of HOPE national spokesperson.

On January 22, 2008, Mr. Bryant was appointed vice-chairman of the President’s Council on Financial Literacy by U.S. President George W. Bush.

[edit] Awards and Recognitions

Bryant has received more than 400 awards and citations for his work to educate, inspire and empower low-wealth communities nationwide.

Most notably:

  • Three times during the 20th Century TIME Magazine compiled a list of America’s future leadership. On December 5th, 1994, John Hope Bryant was selected by TIME as “One of America’s 50 Most Promising Leaders of the Future,” as part of their 50 for the Future cover story.

[edit] Appointments

[edit] Publications

Silver Rights Movement Book Series

  • Fixing the Jericho Road: The Silver Rights Movement and the Good Samaritan
  • Silver Rights Movement in Africa
  • The Wealthless Power
  • The Ownership Society
  • Racism and the Silver Rights Movement
  • Banking on Our Future: The Promise for America’s Unbanked
  • The Silver Rights Movement
  • Leave No Community Behind

[edit] Further reading

  • The New Color of Success: Twenty Young Black Millionaires Tell You How They're Making It, by Niki Butler Mitchell, Prima Lifestyles (December 15, 1999), ISBN 978-0761520658
  • Uncle Tom or New Negro?: African Americans Reflect on Booker T. Washington and UP FROM SLAVERY 100 Years Later, Rebecca Carroll, Harlem Moon (January 10, 2006), ISBN 978-0767919555

[edit] Trivia

  • John Bryant is the namesake of the John Bryant Scholarship in Urban Social Development, a permanent scholarship fund, established and set aside to fund the dreams of deserving minority and low-wealth young adults at the USC School of Social Work

[edit] References

  1. Leave No Community Behind, by John Bryant, (2001) http://www.johnhopebryant.com/john_hope_bryant_/2005/03/nbsp_nbspleave_.html, accessed January 4, 2007
  2. The New Color of Success: Twenty Young Black Millionaires Tell You How They're Making It, by Niki Butler Mitchell, Prima Lifestyles (December 15, 1999), ISBN 978-0761520658
  3. Face Forward: Young African American Men in a Critical Age, by Julian C.R. Okwu, Chronicle Books (March 1, 1997), ISBN 978-0811816311
  4. Biography of John Hope Bryant, http://www.operationhope.org/smdev/slst1.php?id=150, accessed January 6, 2007

[edit] Quotes

  • "There is a difference between broke and being poor. Being broke is a temporary economic condition, but being poor is a disabling frame of mind and a depressed condition of your spirit, and you must vow to never, ever be poor again."
  • "Spiritual and emotional poverty lead to intellectual and economic poverty"

[edit] External links